It’s time once again for my every-few-years appeal to the Teeming Millions to see if anyone knows who this belly dancer is.
I’ve asked before, but, with all due respect, I don’t think we’ve identified her yet.
I half suspect that she wound up marrying a fabulously wealthy sheikh, and disappearing from public entirely. A possible clue is that the person who posted the video on YouTube six years ago spelled it, “belly danse.” I have tried writing to the poster, but have never received a response.
Anyway, while she is perhaps not as technically impressive as, for instance, Sadie – I think this dancer has an undefinable quality that is very appealing.
Oh, one more thing: if anyone can identify the music, I would love that too!
Shazam says the music is ‘Habib’ possibly by someone named Kadir Al.
Or maybe that’s part of the title.
Or maybe not.
Google yields no further information.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Turkish delight! Yum-O! :o
What makes you think she is remotely famous? Maybe this video was a one shot gig on a Lebanese children’s show.
I can’t help you with that one, but an interesting pioneer of belly dancing in the US was the beautiful Diane Webber, noteworthy in her own right as a eccentric individualist (and a Google image search for classic cheesecake pics) but also, in this centenial season, as the daughter of WWI adventurer and later Hollywood zany Arthur Guy Empey
Didn’t we try and figure this out a while back?
ETA: We did. Twice. brujaja has been trying to find out who she is for 5 years.
Damn, I can’t believe we can’t come up with an answer. We identify the most obscure works of art in minutes, but this one is taking so long it’s gonna fuck up our average.
I’m going to take a wild stab.
I think I may have seen her before, on a DIY show called Renovation Realities. On that show, she and her boyfriend/husband (can’t remember which) were working on their patio space, and at one point she had to go bellydance at a farmer’s market or some such thing. They showed a few very short clips, and she had a scimitar with her that she balanced on her chest, much like she does with the cane in the video. She appears to have similar hair and build.
Unfortunately, the DIY network doesn’t have the video up, so I can’t do a direct bellydancing comparison. But, the girl’s name was Anna Ciriello, and she does have the audition video they shot to appear on Renovation Realities here so you can draw your own comparison.
There is one other thing I know about this dancer – it wasn’t just a one-off, because there used to be a second video with this dancer on YouTube.
The music was somewhat less fetching, being more percussion than melody. She was wearing an awesome outfit made of pale, sheer fabric. Encircling the dropped waist was a row of 8-inch strings of beads, attached vertically. Only the upper third was sewn down, leaving the rest to dangle down and swing around. The result of this configuration was that the beads faithfully followed every motion of her hips, with a slight delay, like slapback reverb on a microphone. It was mesmerizing.
I found the outfit outrageously suggestive, for the simple reason that the fabric was just opaque enough that you could never quite make out if you were seeing the shadow between her nether cheeks or not. I think you could. But I’m not sure. Devastating!
Max Torque: Aha! A lead! I’ll go check it out!
Snowboarder Bo: Yes. Note the thread title. 
Max Torque: That was a very good guess! Her build is indeed almost identical to the mystery dancer’s. However, after some poking around, I found this still photo of her and her guy on a Bay Area bellydancing website, and I’m pretty sure it’s not her.
Don’t know why, but I’d be willing to bet that mystery dancer is not American.
I have an idea! If someone with better equipment than I have could take a good screen shot of her face from the video, perhaps I can use TinEye to identify her.
